Mace Head
300–500
- Medium
- pecked and polished gray stone
- Dimensions
- Overall: 4.2 x 7.3 x 13.6 cm (1 5/8 x 2 7/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
- Genre
- Sculpture
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art
Styles
Tags
Costa Rica
About
Once mounted on wooden shafts, elaborately shaped mace (club) heads like this one probably were not used as weapons. Rather, they could have served as emblems of chiefly authority, group insignia, the heads of ceremonial weapons, or all three. They eventually were placed in elite graves. The back-curled nose on this example may refer to a crocodile or caiman.